Brianne Hughes, Katy Isaacs, Lisa Berglund
Three Lexicographers are We
Lisa Berglund
(parody of “Three Little Maids from School are We” from the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan
Three lexicographers are we
Wise as a wordsmith well can be
Filled to the brim with philology —
Three lexicographers!
Ev’ ry word is a source of fun
Decades go by and you’ve just begun
Writing a book that’s never done:
Three lexicographers!
Three lexicographers learned, very,
In all the nonsense necessary
For to compile a dictionary
Three lexicographers!
Three lexicographers!
One with a king held a dialogue
One in a shed through the slips did slog
One lexicographer writes a blog
Three lexicographers!
One did compose Greek and Latin verse
Two: in Phoenician could converse;
Three: is a star in the Twitterverse!
Three lexicographers!
Three lexicographers learned, very,
In all the nonsense necessary
For to compile a dictionary
Three lexicographers!
Three lexicographers!
When You Use a Dictionary
Lisa Berglund
(parody of “Never Mind the Why and Wherefore” from HMS Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan
When you use a dictionary
Be judicious and be wary;
Lexicography, I warn you,
Is a complicated trade,
And the product is like sausage
So don’t ask me how it’s made!
When you use a dictionary
Be judicious and be wary:
If the word you want is missing
Go ahead–complain and pout.
0ther readers are insisting
That the ed’tors take it out!
When you use a dictionary
Be judicious and be wary:
Don’t stop at signification
For you haven’t done your jobs
Till you know the derivation,
And if it’s dial., vulg. or obs.!
REFRAIN
Don’t trust Johnson,
Don’t trust Webster,
Don’t trust Murray’s OED.
Ev’ ry book has an agenda
Even when they all agree!
It is not as one supposes
(Nothing like what one supposes)–
2nd time (It is not a bed of roses)–
They were not engraved by Moses
(No one half as wise as Moses).
2nd time (as perusal soon discloses).
Read the headwords,
check your spelling,
Skim the etymology–
Lexicons have tales worth telling
Sorted out from A to Z!
Read the headwords,
check your spelling,
Learn the codes that here ensconce words.
Lexicons have tales worth telling–
Catachresis, nouns and nonce words!
Hail to lexicography!
Sorting out from A to Z!